I read last week an electronics magazine article about developments in electric aircraft. Yes – for real – the aviation industry is not confined to using truck loads of fossil fuel to get from A to B. The article got off to a bad start by using the word ‘electric’ with the phrase ‘reduced greenhouse […]
Continue readingMonth: January 2011
Another weight-based challenge
About eighteen months ago I thought about the challenge invited by an airline’s policy on cabin baggage – forget the weight, if it’s smaller than a certain size you can take it on board. A similar challenge has been set by the company that collects my garden rubbish. I have a ‘green’ wheelie bin, which […]
Continue readingUnhelpful instructions
I’ve been spending some time over the last few days clearing out six years of accumulated junk from our garage. One of the latest discoveries was an empty paint tin, left over from when we attacked the bathroom about three years ago. I like to think that I am moderately conscious of what I do […]
Continue readingFighting global warming with old technology
Man – the swimming pool was cold today. Just three days with no sunshine is enough to send it back into penguin territory. Anyway, that’s not today’s entry. I’ve just been at a very interesting seminar by Bill Redman-White, a visitor to the university from The University of Southampton and NXP Semiconductors UK. He was […]
Continue readingMeasurement beats guesswork
OK – so this story is a touch light on the physics front, but it does demonstrate the power of actually taking the time to measure something, instead of assuming the obvious. My wife has kindly agreed to help a friend (who has limited mobility) travel from Cambridge to Hamilton for a medical appointment. This […]
Continue readingTeach science understanding, not recipes
If you teach science at university (or, I suggest, at school too) and have an hour free (ha ha) this recent lecture by Eric Mazur is well worth a listen. I’m willing to bet that it will be an hour well invested. http://www.youtube.com/user/uwaterloo#p/u/41/tn1DLFnbGOo Here’s three points I thought were particularly significant (to the point that […]
Continue readingWood and water
It all started so well…A nice sunny Saturday, a good opportunity to get going on some of those jobs that you’ve put off for too long. So I put a final coat of paint on the door and, with that task out of the way, I decided to move to tackling the pergola that sits over […]
Continue readingElectricity from water – the exciting way
Forget conventional hydroelectric installations – if you want to have fun generating electricity in the lab then the completely static tin can and bucket generator is for you. They are all the rage at the moment – at least in our lab here, where we’ve sidetracked a student from his summer project into making one […]
Continue readingDNA sequencing in one easy step?
DNA Sequencing has been around for a while now. It’s success is down to a wonderfully unlikely collaboration between molecular biology and computer science. Basically, in simple terms (apologies to molecular biologists if I get this wrong – feel free to correct me) to sequence your genome, you take your DNA, chop it into bits, replicate […]
Continue reading“It’s a rain forest, expect rain…”
So says an information board at the Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre at Waikaremoana in Te Urewera National Park. We know this well, so before heading down that way with the tent this weekend, we carefully checked the weather forecast. "Mostly fine, with occasional showers", it advised, and the nice weather charts indicated a high pressure area […]
Continue reading